Saturday, August 02, 2008

Delia Smith Cookery Course


The Delia Smith Cookery Course. Recommended.

Delia is the David Pogue of cookbook authors. She has sound viewpoints, is very easy to read, warm, and sometimes funny. And above all: She explains the basics! This is so important and so rare. It is obviously important to fools like me, whose mother never taught him and whose school course on it was rudimentary at best. But it is also important to more advanced pupils, simply because nobody knows all the basics, and one is often surprised. As in "so that's why we do it that way". Knowing basics is so important for skill and for enjoyment of anything.

How basic does it start? Rock bottom. This book taught me the best way to boil an egg, and how to make porridge. And now it's teaching me the basics of grains/cereals and bread making. This is because reader DreamingWolf nudged me into finally getting a bread maker, which I'm eager to start using.

But it's also a big book, and I've no doubt that it's the rare cook who can't learn anything from it.

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By the way, I knew that rye bread ("black" bread) was unusual in the UK (and it seems in the US), but I had no idea how much. It turns out that buying rye flour is virtually impossible here. Geez.

=================================
TTL salivates:
I don't know. I prefer Nigella Lawson. More shapely body, more luscious lips, and overall sultrier presence.
I don't cook, though. So I can not comment on that.

Heck, she could cook for me any day.

... Funny thing, she is so f***ing attractive that I find myself going in reverse gear, "she just has to be a bitch or something". Or thinking that parading her looks that way to sell her books is just commercial and fake. "English muffin" indeed! But is that a reasonable reaction?

Update: I just realized she'd be on Utoob. Sample:



Notice how she draws attention to her breasts by taking off her pullover. :-)
She hardly needed bother.

Fun comments on the Utoob page:

I just watched a show of hers on tv and she said "I love the way it bulges out.." (talking about pudding in a wine glass)
"I love a large portion" (while cooking steak on the bbq)
"It's a really juicy pair" (Can't remember what she was talking about because I may have been staring at her "juicy pair" :P

And:

i feel sorry for the women who come to Nigella videos looking for actual cooking advice, then end up reading all our pervy comments.
That said, i'd love to [explicit sexual comment]

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I'm reminded of a woman I once saw manning a booth at an exhibition. Nice looking, and she had a huge bosom barely held back by a tiny top. It was just impossible not to stare at it!
She gave me a friendly hello, and I gave one back, and for a split second my eyes slipped down. There was no doubt whatsoever that she had seen it, and I just couldn't talk to her.
Not that I had any reason for being ashamed, but I'm a shy person, so I couldn't.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rye flour is plentiful where I live, which is in the U.S. Rye bread is not hard to come by. (NYC.) That's what you meant by black bread? I prefer a light rye myself. I don't like the taste of full rye. But maybe it is an acquired taste and I will be able to move up to the 100% eventually.

Even Homer Simpson ate a sandwitch on rye. He conjured it with his monkey's paw, but the turkey was a little dry.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yes, that's what I meant. See:
http://eolake.blogspot.com/2008/07/black-bread.html

I started calling it black bread because people around here get confused by the term "rye bread".

I prefer the darkest kind, and wholemeal.

Anonymous said...

I don't know. I prefer Nigella Lawson. More shapely body, more luscious lips, and overall sultrier presence.

I don't cook, though. So I can not comment on that.

Anonymous said...

Black bread may also mean bread made from blood (I kid you not).

The thing you are referring to is called rye bread here, too. I eat wholemeal rye bread every morning. I couldn't exist without it.

Alex said...

What's wrong with Rachael Rey.

http://www.rachaelraypictures.com/rachael_ray_pictures/FHM/image1.htm

Delia Smith is a tried and true.

In the UK if someone said Rye Bread, I'd think of something like Ryvita http://www.ryvita.com/uk/

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I've tried Ryvita, I don't care for it. (Though the right kind of crisp bread is a staple in my diet.)

Really, I don't think most people in the UK have a concept of what rye bread is.

Does anybody have a picture of what it looks like in the US?

Alex said...

http://www.recipetips.com/kitchen-tips/t-146-1124/basic-breads.asp

Their marble rye and rye look how I am used to seeing them here in CA.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Ah, thanks.

I've grown up with "rugbrød" (literally "rye bread"), which, unlike most "rye bread" is not mixed with weat, so it's not risen, and hence very dark and dense. The Pumpernickel looks closest to it. My favorite is german types, very dark and with lots of whole grain in it.

I may have to mix some wheat in myself, for the machine's motor to handle it. We'll see.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Great page, that one, thanks.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

... I have just realized, that when I said:
"I prefer the darkest kind, and wholemeal."

I actually meant "whole grain". I have some slow going here reconciling the different concepts and different words. "Wholemeal" or "wholewheat" is a wheat bread concept. Whole grain, I think, is seen as rarely as pure rye bread outside of Northern Europe. Especially rye bread with whole grains.

It's good for the digestion and teeth.

Anonymous said...

Rachel Ray is okay to look at but I don't like her personality or her voice. She's a loudmouth and I don't like being around or watching someone like that Luckily I can just not watch her show. There's not much chance I'll ever run into her in person.

-Brian

Anonymous said...

Gee, whatever you write next, that bumps the "muffin" lady downwards, better be real good! :-)

If you screw up you may have to include an off-topic Nigella photo just to keep your readership from rioting.

Anonymous said...

Nigella is my kind of cook. When she bakes stuff, she's smart enough to realise that no amount of weighing will make much of a difference. You can weigh and measure to your heart's content, and maybe it'll work with one batch of flour, but the next batch will be just that little bit stronger and your bread turns out dry and shitty. No sirree, good cooks cook using hands, tongues and noses. Not scales.

As for bread, the darker the better.

Anonymous said...

Nigella is my kind of cook too. To be a good cook you should have a really big rack.

Alex said...

I've only seen RR on food packages, I googled her to see who she was and found the FHM shoot.

No idea if she cooks better than Jamie Oliver, but she looked better.